An effective way to fish for offshore game fish, such as marlin, is to use a ballyhoo fishing rig. There are two basic types of ballyhoo rigs described in the prior art: a ballyhoo O-ring rig; and a ballyhoo rigid swivel rig.
FIG. 1A is a photograph of the front end of a ballyhoo O-ring rig 100 from a top perspective. The O-ring rig comprises a leading hook 102, a flexible O-ring 104, a rigging wire 106 and a dead bait fish 108, such as a ballyhoo. The rigging wire passes through the O-ring and is wrapped around the head of the bait fish to secure it to the O-ring. The leading hook passes through the O-ring. The O-ring is described by an O-ring major internal diameter (ID) 116.
The leading hook comprises a shaft 122 and a barb 124. The shaft is described by a shaft outer diameter (OD) 114. The barb is described by a barb span 112.
The O-ring major ID is about the same as the shaft OD. The O-ring may fit snugly on the shaft. The O-ring must be flexible enough so that it can stretch under the force a typical person can produce with their hand so that the O-ring will fit over the barb span when the hook is placed through the O-ring major ID.
One of the disadvantages of the O-ring rig is that when a game fish takes the bait and exerts force on the line attached to the hook, the hook may not be in the correct orientation to hook the game fish in its jaw. Thus, the rig may pop out of the fish's mouth. To overcome this problem, some anglers use a ballyhoo rigid swivel rig.
FIG. 1B is a photograph of a side view of the front of a prior art ballyhoo rigid swivel rig 120. The rigid swivel rig comprises a leading hook 102, a rigid swivel 122, a rigging wire 106 and a dead bait fish 108. The rigid swivel comprises a rigid fore ring 124, a body 126 and an aft ring 128. The fore ring is attached to the body of the swivel with a rotatable fore joint 125. The aft ring is attached to the body with a rotatable aft joint 127. The fore ring is described by a fore ring ID 132.
The aft ring is buried in the bait fish's upper lip and not visible. The rigging wire passes through the aft ring and is wrapped around the head of the bait fish. This may cause the body of the swivel to press against the upper lip of the bait fish thus not allowing the body of the swivel to rotate freely relative to the aft ring.
The leading hook passes through the fore ring. The fore ring ID must be slightly less than the barb span 112 of the hook so that the fore ring will “click” over the barb 124 when the hook is inserted through the fore ring. The fore ring ID, therefore is significantly larger than the shaft OD 114 of the hook shaft 122. The fore ring is rigid hence it fits loosely over the shaft and may come off in use. There is a need, therefore, for a swivel for use in fishing for game fish that is flexible enough to fit over the barb of a fore hook and make a snug fit with the shaft while still allowing said fore hook to rotate freely relative to the bait fish and hence properly catch said game fish's jaw when said game fish takes the bait.